D.L. Hughley was in the house Friday, and in fine form for
the “Show Your Heart” benefit comedy concert at Delta College’s Pioneer Gym.

But the night offered far more than a few laughs. It was
humor with heart, from the first performer to hit the stage to the touching
testimony of the Dawkins family at its close.

The show, a benefit for the Dorian Styles Dawkins Foundation
and the American Heart Association, remembered the 14-year-old son of Saginaw
High School basketball coach Lou Dawkins and his wife, Latricia, who is the
principal of the Loomis Math, Science and Technology Academy.

In early June, Dorian collapsed while shooting from the
free-throw line during a basketball tournament at Michigan State University.
Later that night, he died from Acute Myocardial Ischemia, an undetected heart
defect he’d had since birth.

Christian hip-hop artist Brandon “B” Webb, a student at
Delta College, opened Friday’s show with an invocation of sorts. After
performing two songs, he returned with an a capella version of the first,
reciting it in a style that captured the full power of his words.

Then came “CoCo,”
with a heady dose of comic relief. The Detroit comedian touched on everything
from the joy of being a big girl and embracing your sexiness to the pursuit of
the perfect man.

“I just turned 47 – hot flash! – which means I’m wearing the
barest amount of underwear that can be worn in public,” she said. But don’t
call her a cougar, she added; she hates the popular name for older women
looking for young companions.

“I’m an opportunist,” she said, triggering a wave of
applause. “I like the edge.”

The stage was set for Hughley, and he hit the ground
running.

“We have a lot to be grateful for,” he said, despite rising
unemployment rates and few prospects for finding another job. “The blacks get a
black president and the whites finally get O.J., so we’re even now,” he said.
“And at least we’re not celebrities.”

If he should die like actor David Carradine, “call the
police,” he said. “I was murdered.”

Give a little love to Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps – you
have to be high to wear those tiny bathing suits in the first place, Hughley
said – and to the man he called the greatest entertainer who ever lived,
Michael Jackson.

“OK, he was a lousy babysitter,” Hughley allowed. “But I
think he just needed his father in his life. He said his father scared him, but
everyone is afraid around their fathers. That’s why we have mothers.

“Look at what Joe Jackson did, raised nine children who were
successful, never got in big trouble, didn’t join a gang. Michael needed him
around to say ‘Fix your nose, son. You’re scaring your mother!’”

From there, he jumped from homeless dog owners – “You know
that dog is thinking ‘This has to be the longest walk in the world,’” he
quipped – to the idiocy of walking your food.

“In China, I’ve been there, and they eat dogs,” he said.
“You’re never going to see me out walking my chicken, calling ‘Here, Two-Piece,
let’s go.’”

And Hughley talked about his children, especially the son
who has Asperger Syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism. The young man
turned 21 in early December, he said, remembering how, when he was younger, he
asked Hughley why he was gone all the time.

“I told him I had to work so he could eat,” Hughley said in
one of the night’s more moving moments, “and he asked me, ‘If I eat less, will you
stay home more?’”

Jumping into the crowd of some 500 people, he got up close
and personal, talking about jobs, marriage and the need to shed a few pounds.
And he closed by giving his love to the Dawkins family, and his sympathy for their
loss.

Lou Dawkins joined his wife Latricia, son Christian and
daughter Hailee on stage, remembering the son who “brought so much to our
family and to our city. No one can replace him.”

And he talked about Christian, 17, who organized the show
and next weekend’s Dorian Dawkins Classic basketball tournament, showcasing
some of the country’s top high school teams in games Saturday and Sunday at
Delta.

Of course, Lou Dawkins said, like the rest of the family,
Christian would rather have Dorian back in their lives. But in what he’s
accomplished in his brother’s memory, “Christian is promising to become someone
special,” he said. “I am so honored.”

Calling Hughley back to the stage, he thanked the comedian
from the bottom of his family’s heart for turning a sad occasion into a great
night.